Summer Ideas for Gooners; What to do with no Arsenal

The
madness of this season came to an end last weekend. Barring the CL final and
who gives two bobs about it huh? pffft! Just a reason to drink or bet, or stay
out late with friends. And then what do you do? How will you stay three months
without any football. (Don’t write Emirates Cup in the comments to avoid
arsekicking by 100+ Gooners. Simultaneously)

How will you cope with empty time? What
will you do with yourself (stop that thought right there!) and how will you
save your family from the wrath of your abundant availability? As a good friend
I cooked up a few ways you could survive the wait.

Try Bungee Jumping and other adventure
sports

This will help you kill time and if you’re not really cut-out for it then the
death-defying thrills will train you well to handle the last 10 minutes of
games when Arsenal defend a one-goal lead next season.

Also if you try Sky Diving you will find yourself perpetually in arms raised
position for long durations of time as you float through the air. This will train
you well to keep your arms raised and support through the 90 minutes. Keep arms
raised and yell “what the fuck was that ____(insert name) ” . Doesn’t
quite work, does it? Yeah. Exactly.

Visit
Egypt

Well tourism doesn’t hurt anyone. You travel, you learn, you grow. Also you
spend, shop and keep cleaning your hands (at least some of you do) It will kill
a lot of time just planning and then holidaying, and then when you arrive and
stand in front of the sphinx you’ll realise that it’s not bigger than the
Eiffel Tower or the Titanic but in fact just six meters tall. Now that reality
check could be a sizeable shock as your kid tries to jump and touch its nose,
but will also set the tone right and lower your expectations from our summer purchases
this season. It looks like 70m from a distance, but it’s not!

Visit India

Of course the super bonus here is meeting me (not mentioned in lonely planet). But
also India is a vast country and travelling through its length and breadth will
make you more tolerant to noise. E.g. In the taxi you’ll hear the cow, the
honking, older engines, hawkers, eunuchs clapping hands and begging for money, sirens,
and on top of it all the taxi driver explaining to his wife how he expects to
get a fatter tip from you and then spend it on good liquor fish for the
family in any of the languages spoken here. As you totter through the
pot-holes, you’d be shaken out of your comfort zone and will reach a point where
you’ll be immune to this noise and you’d find yourself saying – Alright you know what I don’t give a shit,
I’m just gonna read a book with my iPod on. And that is fantastic training to
survive all the shit rumors which will fly through your TL all summer and
after.

As simply practiced in India it means see no rumour, hear no rumour, tweet no rumour.
(now you’re thinking how does hands on mouth mean not tweeting – so my dear
Einstein have you seen anyone typing while having their hands occupied? ) Now
before you cook up a Gareth Bale joke …
let me tell you I have a few up my sleeve, but not telling now. No. NO!

A
diploma in Microbiology

Find a quick one and finish it off, or may
be just download it all and do long distance correspondence etc and Voila! You’d
be qualified to test blood, tissue, hair, urine and stool. And this is really
really important. Especially the last bit. Look… you got to know your shit. Especially if you plan to talk Arsenal on Twitter.
Alternatively just read up all of Swiss Ramble , Arseblog and Dave Seager’s TL
+ blogs. But I suggest the microbiology course really.

Oh c’monnnn you all do it on twitter daily.
Gatecrash into a random conversation. Call a stranger idiot. Pick up arguments
and get into people’s faces. This video might encourage you to do more of that,
or showcase some of the consequences. But do what you want, its twitter after
all. Let’s make it more fun though next year. (Talking like I’m Pope pffft!)

Learn
Photography

Learning any discipline requires discipline
(Wow look at that, genius, pure genius, take a moment). And you can’t learn a discipline
without being disciplined about the discipline. But let’s not discipline
ourselves about that discipline right now, for this is not a school.

Tell you what, if you learn about photography you can master at least half the
shit people say on Twitter and most of the shit Arsene Wenger says. e.g. some
words that Arsene has stolen from photography world.
A. Support (meaning a tripod)
B. Sharpness in the final 3rd (pfft!)
C. I did not see it (meaning my eyes are not a telephoto lens)
D. I don’t remember (my memory card is full)
E. Team (some people)
F. Shoot (point & fire)
G. Scoring (good shoot, client paid advance and sent some stuff)
H. League Table (there are many more tables you can use in photography)
I. Objective (model, or sometimes just the food on the plate)
J. I could keep going on…but let me finally wrap it up by informing all that
the correct word is faded and not jaded!

Work
at a Bar

Not only is it a fantastic way of earning
money. But also a great way of making friends. You converse, serve, earn, and
perhaps sample some good stuff. Over the course of time you could become a bit
of a connoisseur yourself and could tell a peated malt from a Spey-side one or
tell your lagers from ales. You can then watch people enjoy the stories you
tell them as they consume more and more. You can thank me later for earning
through this fun job, or just for learning that you don’t care about the cup
you drink from as long as what you pour is intoxicating and addictive.

Watch
Porn

My bet is if you’re heavily on Twitter and also reading this you’re probably
not getting any. (My therapist told me to stop projecting, yet I continue…
sorry) Yeah yeah I know, I didn’t have to tell you this one, and you were
probably doing that on the alternate tab on your browser. But now when you hear
your door being flung open followed by “Sammy! What kinda project homework
is that!!?” … you don’t have to look at the ceiling or think of an
excuse for the sock in your hand… you can just say “this wise guy
(that’d be me) told me to research this topic to learn more about fine art and
correlate with other art forms like football.” That will convince her. Or
will at least temporarily stun her for the time that you can find the other
sock and pretend to go and play.

So yeah watch porn. It’s like a training to watch Arsenal. “Yes Yes
Yes!” and scoring, it’s all the same in the silky smooth world we crave.
1-2… give and go.. I mean it’s all there. And I want you to think of Arsenal
when you’re watching porn. Thoughts become prayers soon and you know what the
power of prayer can do. Get used to the happy-endings and the in-game prayers
next year will work so much better. Watch whatever you please MILF (managers
*cough*), Fetish, Torres on Torres action or whatever. There is only one
variety I would request you to avoid. Doggystyle. I know it’s popular and easy
and you can rest your beer easily, but we don’t really want to come from behind
all the time.

Visit
Old Age Homes

Understand Peter Hill-Wood. End of Par.

Ok I shouldn’t have made that joke, because
now I can’t think of anything funny. Also forgot all the Abou Diaby, Gervinho,
Deadwood jokes I thought of. Let me go
and wash down this terrible taste in my mouth with some fresh brew.